MEDFRIEND 2012Modeling Sediment Transport in Hydrological Watersheds and RiversInternational Conference, November 14-16, 2012, Istanbul, Turkey
ObjectiveDue to its great importance of soil erosion from hillslopes in hydrological watersheds and rivers, it has been decided to organize MEDFRIEND2012: International Conference Sediment Transport Modeling in Hydrological Watersheds and Rivers between November 14-16, 2012 in Istanbul, Turkey. The general topic of the conference has been sediment transport modeling in hydrological watersheds and rivers knowing that erosion and sediment transport is a major problem in Mediterranean and semi-arid countries. Any topic related to the modeling sediment transport has been the issue of the Conference. Some sub-topics were as follows: Although all these are widely studied topics, modeling sediment transport is a domain with less specific and largely used knowledge. Thus the general objective of the MEDFRIEND2012 is to gather not only regional but also worldwide researchers and practitioners working on this topic at different scales of time and space, in order to identify and compare tools and methodologies, and to edit the main contributions as a set of papers to give future studies a good overview. With this, it was aimed to accommodate any contribution on the topic from all around the world such that it can be made sure that the Conference covered the up-to-date science and practice of sediment transport. Interest and Participation to the ConferenceThe MEFRIEND2012 Conference with such important topic has attracted a great interest from all over the world; 163 abstracts were submitted. Among these abstracts, 103 contributions were finally programmed and published in the pre-published Conference Proceedings, from 32 countries all over five continents: Asia, Europe, Africa, North America and South America. There were 55 oral presentations and 48 poster. A total of 99 participants registered. At the beginning of the Conference, after the opening ceremony, an opening lecture of one hour was given by Prof. Axel Bronstert (University of Potsdam, Germany). Also five more keynote speeches each half an hour were made during the Conference. Supports
Bilingual ConferenceConsidering the potential interest from North African countries (Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco as members of MEDFRIEND) and also that those participants have French as their working language, the Conference was organized in two languages (French and English). Simultaneous translation was made available for the participants. 12 out of 55 (22%) oral presentations and 18 out of 48 (38%) poster presentations were submitted in French; 30 out of 103 (approximately 30%) in total. All the slides of the presentations are available from the menu "Event" and "Istanbul 2012 Slides"Outcomes of the conference1. Scientific / Technical OutcomesPresentations were made at high scientific and technical levels. They consisted of very recent studies made at laboratories or observed at field. Also high level theoretical models were presented. The three days during the Conference were full of fruitful and productive discussions. Participants were all very happy with the organization. We have already positive feedback by emails from the participants that they enjoyed their time during the Conference. 2. Proceedings / Journal papers103 full papers and abstracts were published in the Conference Proceedings made of 670 pages. Following journals were contacted already for publication of the revised / extended versions of presentations of the Conference. Participants will be able to submit their full-papers to these journals for a possible publication after a further review process. 3 The material of the conference will be given as soon as possible to the MEDFRIEND Website manager, Mrs Claudine Dieulin, from IRD Morocco: pictures, ppt files, papers at a very small format. 3. FRIEND-related [Organizational / Administrative] outcomesWe understood that the FRIEND Community established by UNESCO is a very good way to contribute science at different topics for different regions in the world. It is a very FRIENDly way to bring FRIENDs together from different FRIEND regions. Because we have seen that the Conference has been a good link not only between the MEDFRIEND Community (Mediterranean region) but also between participants from other continents. We concluded so because of the great interest shown by the participants coming outside the Mediterranean region. Therefore, the FRIEND initiative must continue and be enlarged. During the gala diner, Prof. Touaibia passed the coordination of the theme "Erosion and solid transport" to Prof. Hakoy. (Picture below, from right to left: Prof H. Aksoy, new research theme coordinator "Erosion and solid transport" for MEDFRIEND; Prof B. Touaibia, former coordinator of this theme; G. Mahe, MEDFRIEND Regional coordinator) ![]() ![]() |